With «Beyond Horizons 2025», James Turrell has created his largest permanent Ganzfeld to date in Oelsnitz/Erzgebirge. The installation opened in 2025 as a highlight of the PURPLE PATH art trail, part of Chemnitz’s European Capital of Culture programme. Visitors can expect an extraordinary experience: any sense of spatial orientation seems to dissolve as the colours change slowly and subtly. The gaze loses its familiar point of reference, and what initially appears to be an abstract field of light transforms into an intense, almost meditative experience of seeing.

For «Beyond Horizons 2025», a historic industrial hall of the former Karl-Liebknecht mine was specially transformed for the installation. Two interconnected spaces lead visitors ever deeper into Turrell’s world of light. Over the course of approximately one hour, the light programme developed specifically for the site continuously changes in colour and intensity. Walls, floor and ceiling seem to lose their boundaries, becoming an apparently limitless field of light and colour.

Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 am–5:00 pm; closed on Mondays, except on national public holidays.
Address: KohleWelt – Museum Steinkohlenbergbau Sachsen, Pflockenstraße 28, 09376 Oelsnitz/Erzgebirge, Germany.
Visit: The installation is experienced in 30-minute time slots with a limited capacity of ten visitors. Advance ticket booking is recommended. Those wishing to experience the complete, approximately one-hour light cycle can book two consecutive time slots.
Further information: Official website – James Turrell: Beyond Horizons 2025

At Swarovski Kristallwelten in Wattens, two fascinating materials meet: light and crystal. With «Umbra, 2022», James Turrell created a permanent Shallow Space Construction specifically for this site, transforming one of the Chambers of Wonder into a fully immersive experiential space. Light is not merely made visible, but almost physically tangible – an experience in which the boundaries between space, colour and perception seem to dissolve.

Upon entering «Umbra, 2022», the perception of the space continuously shifts. Luminous colours seem to expand, edges and architectural boundaries recede, and the room begins to dissolve into an apparently boundless field of light. The title «Umbra, 2022» refers to the shadow region of an eclipse and thus to the particular quality of soft, diffuse light that is central to Turrell’s work. Amidst Swarovski Kristallwelten, an extraordinary dialogue emerges between the immaterial medium of light and the material brilliance of crystal. «Umbra, 2022» is currently the only permanent installation of this type in the German-speaking region.

Opening hours: Daily, 9:00 am–7:00 pm; last admission at 6:00 pm.
Address: Swarovski Kristallwelten, Kristallweltenstraße 1, 6112 Wattens, Austria.
Visit: The installation is located within Swarovski Kristallwelten. An online ticket is recommended, as it provides direct access without waiting at the ticket counter. A visit can be combined with the other Chambers of Wonder and the Crystal Worlds park.
Further information: Official website – Swarovski Kristallwelten / Umbra

On the historic Domberg in Freising, near Munich, James Turrell has created an extraordinary dialogue between light, architecture and spirituality. «A CHAPEL FOR LUKE and his scribe Lucius the Cyrene», 2022, is located in the former chapel of the Freising Seminary and continues Turrell’s renowned Ganzfeld series. The artist transforms the former sacred space into an almost boundless field of light and colour. Upon entering, visitors gradually lose their sense of spatial orientation; depth, walls and architectural boundaries seem to dissolve. What emerges is an intense experience in which it is not an object that is being observed, but seeing itself that becomes the subject of the experience.

The title of the work refers to the famous Freising Lukasbild, a Byzantine icon in the museum’s collection traditionally attributed to the Evangelist Luke. Turrell deliberately aligned the light installation along the same axis as the icon, connecting the spiritual history of the site with his own perception-based artistic practice. As with Turrell’s Ganzfelds, the work explores the moment when the familiar world loses its fixed contours and light itself becomes a sensual and almost contemplative experience.

Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00 am–5:00 pm; the Turrell installation can be entered from 10:00–11:30 am and 2:30–4:00 pm.
Address: Diözesanmuseum Freising, Domberg 21, 85354 Freising, Germany.
Visit: The installation is permanently accessible. Due to the limited visiting hours and occasionally high visitor numbers, waiting times may occur. A visit can be combined with the collection of the Diözesanmuseum and a tour of the historic Domberg.
Further information: Official website – James Turrell at the Diözesanmuseum Freising

Auf 1.780 Metern Höhe, oberhalb von Oberlech am Arlberg, hat James Turrell mit «Skyspace Lech» einen Ort geschaffen, an dem Kunst und Landschaft unmittelbar miteinander verschmelzen. Der weitgehend in den Hügel eingelassene Bau öffnet sich über eine elliptische Deckenöffnung zum Himmel und fügt sich zugleich nahezu unsichtbar in die alpine Landschaft ein. Ein 15 Meter langer Tunnel führt in den ovalen Innenraum, dessen umlaufende Sitzbank dazu einlädt, sich ganz auf das Licht und den Himmel zu konzentrieren. Der Wechsel von natürlichem Himmelslicht und Turrells fein abgestimmter Lichtkomposition macht den Skyspace zu einem eindrücklichen Ort der Ruhe und Wahrnehmung.

Das Erlebnis verändert sich im Laufe des Tages und mit den Wetterbedingungen. Bei geöffnetem Dach wird der Himmel selbst zum eigentlichen Bild: Sonnenlicht, Wolken, Dämmerung und Sterne erscheinen durch die präzise gesetzte Öffnung in einer neuen Intensität. Rund um Sonnenauf- und Sonnenuntergang beginnt Turrells etwa 50-minütige Lichtkomposition, in der sich die Farben des Raumes langsam verändern und mit dem natürlichen Licht des Himmels verbinden. Bei geschlossener Kuppel entsteht hingegen ein Ganzfeld-Erlebnis, in dem die Grenzen des Raumes zunehmend verschwimmen. 

Öffnungszeiten: Täglich und kostenlos zugänglich; die Öffnungszeiten sind saison- und tageslichtabhängig. Die aktuellen Öffnungszeiten und der Besuchskalender sollten vor der Anreise geprüft werden.
Adresse: Tannegg, Oberlech, 6764 Lech am Arlberg, Österreich.
Besuch: Der Skyspace ist nicht direkt mit dem Auto erreichbar und liegt auf 1.780 Metern Höhe. Von Oberlech führt ein etwa 15-minütiger Wanderweg zum Kunstwerk. 
Weitere Informationen: Offizielle Website – Skyspace Lech

«What is important to me is to create an experience of wordless thought, to make the quality and sensation of light itself something really quite tactile ... My works are about light in the sense that light is present and there; the work is amde of light. It is not about light or a record of it, but is light. Light is not so much something that reveals, as the relevation itself.» James Turrell

All of the light installations featured here were created in collaboration with Häusler Contemporary.

Discover further works by James Turrell here.